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On the second day of Edmonton 2017, Brad Gushue won his third game of his first ever world championship.

The only other time a Newfoundland team won the Brier, back in 1976, Jack MacDuff went to the Worlds in Duluth and only managed to win two games.

Gushue took until his 14th Brier to get a Newfoundland team back to the event. He took less than 36 hours to make sure he was on track.

Figure out ice fast. Check.

Get out of gate great. Check.

Find form from St. John’s Brier. Check.

Knock off second favorite. Check.

Niklas Edin of Sweden, going for a Canadian hat trick after winning the last two Worlds here – Victoria 2013 and Halifax 2013 – Gushue took until the eighth end to grab control of the first monster match of the event Sunday evening.

Switzerland was a speed bump in the opening draw Saturday as Canada’s Brier champions took until the seventh end to overcome ice problems and rock problems in their first Worlds curled 85 percent and won 7-5.

Sunday, it was lights out as Gushue scored two and stole four in the second end for a 6-0 lead and dispatched Russia 11-3 in the morning draw. The team curled 92 per cent and skip Gushue threw a perfect 100 per cent game.

Gushue traded deuces with Edin until forcing the Swede to one in the seventh and followed with his fourth two-point end of the game in the eighth.

A steal of two in the ninth sealed the deal for Canada as the Gushue crew ran Edin out of rocks in the 10th for a 8-6 win.

“I think we feel a little bit better about the ice and how we’re throwing it, which is a good sign,” Gushue said of the day. “We’re not concerned about the pressure. I think we know how to deal with this having gone through what we did three weeks ago in St. John’s at the Brier. We just want to make sure that we play well and put ourselves in position for the end of the week.

“The ice and the rocks both improved. The rocks aren’t quite as sharp as they were. And every game we play they are going to get less and less sharp. And with the frost it’s going to take a little bit to get the humidity out of here.”

NO GIRLS ALLOWED?

It’s supposed to be the Edmonton 2017 Ford World Men's Curling Championship.

So who forgot to tell the Netherlands?

What are the women doing here?

The Dutch not only have a female coach in Shari Leibrandt-Demmon, they added Taylor McDonald as team leader.

McDonald is normally the second for both Kelsey Rocque’s women’s tour team and her gold medal-winning Universiade team and her two World Junior gold medals out of Edmonton. She’s also Miss February in this year’s women’s curling calendar.

McDonald worked as an instructor at the World Curling Federation camp in Fussen, Germany, where the Netherlands connection was made.

Liebrandt-Demmon is a much more detailed story.

“I grew up in Golden, B.C., and moved to Calgary for school,” she said, explaining the involved trail she took to coaching the team skipped by Jaap Van Dorp at their first world championship. “I stayed there and curled in Calgary competitively. Eventually, I returned to Golden where an auto accident took me out of competitive curling for many years. I moved to Holland because my husband is Dutch. I wanted to learn the language and culture. The plan was one year and return to Canada. That was 14 years ago.

“In order to meet people, I made contact with the curling club. Before long, I was curling again, which was very unexpected. I started coaching and organizing a junior program. I ended up playing for the Netherlands in seven Europeans and one Worlds."

She coached Van Dorp and his team all the way through junior and now also coaches camps for the WCF in the summer. Hence the McDonald connection.

NEXT TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

Every day at the Edmonton Worlds features a trip down memory lane featuring teams that have won major championships in Northlands Coliseum or across the street at the old Edmonton Gardens.

Sunday featured Russ Howard, who won the 1987 Brier, and Glenn Howard, who took gold at the only previous Ford Worlds held here in 2007.

The two Howards, who curled together in the '87 Brier, were featured in a fun Up Close & Personal session and introduced prior to Sunday draws on the ice.